Labour legislation

Labour legislation contains rights and obligations of the parties to the employment relationship, in particular the employer’s obligations towards the worker.

INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIPS

A worker is a natural person who, in an employment relationship, performs certain tasks for an employer.
An employer is a natural or legal person who employs a worker and for whom the worker performs certain tasks in an employment relationship.

Records of workers employed by the employer

The records of workers employed by the employer shall contain the information referred to in:

Records of workers performing work with an employer under an employment contract;
Records of natural persons carrying out work for the employer under other contracts or special regulations;
Records of the working time of workers.

The workers’ records shall contain at least the following information:

First name and surname
Personal identification number
Sex
Day, month and year of birth
Nationality
Residence(s)
Residence and work permit or work registration certificate, if the worker who is a third-country national is required to have one;
Professional training and specific examinations and courses required for the performance of work, certificates, licences, certificates, etc.
Date of commencement of operations
The job title, i.e. the nature or type of work for which the worker is employed;
Type of employment contract concluded
Date and reason of termination of employment relationship or of employment for temporary agency workers
Date of submission of the declaration (initial registration, changes, termination) of the compulsory insurance of the worker as insured under the employment relationship, including voluntary pension insurance, if the employer participates in the payment thereof, and of the compulsory health insurance during the period of work abroad.

The employer shall, in order to permit easy and direct consultation of the information relating to workers, as an integral part of the workers’ records, keep and record for each worker a written overview of the information contained in the records.
In addition to that information, the employer is required to keep, for each worker, other data on which the exercise of certain rights and obligations in the employment relationship or in relation to the employment relationship laid down in the Labour Act and other laws and special regulations depends, in particular in the fields of pension insurance, compulsory health insurance, taxes and contributions, maternity and parental rights, social welfare, the exercise of the duties of nationals in defence and candidacy during election campaigns.
Records shall be kept from the date of the establishment of the employment relationship until the termination of the employment relationship.

The employer shall keep records of natural persons carrying out work with the employer on the basis of other contracts or special regulations, in particular of:

Persons who have received professional training from an employer for work without taking up an employment relationship;
students working with an employer through approved intermediaries in accordance with a special regulation;
Regular pupils who perform occasional work with their employer through approved secondary schools in accordance with a special regulation;
Regular students of vocational education institutions carrying out work-based learning with an employer as learners;
children and minors who, for a fee, participate in activities in accordance with the Labour Act, if the employer is the organiser of those activities;
persons who, in accordance with social security regulations and regulations on the enforcement of criminal and misdemeanour legal penalties, perform community service with their employer.

Those records shall contain the following information:

First name and surname
Personal identification number
Sex
Day , month and year of birth
Nationality
Residence(s)
The name of the contract or act on the basis of which the worker works with the employer, and proof of compliance with the conditions laid down for the performance of those tasks;
Place of work
Date of commencement of operations
The termination date
The date of submission of the declaration (initiation, change, termination) to the compulsory insurance of the natural person, where the insurance obligation is laid down in separate regulations on that basis.

The worker’s working time records shall contain the following information:

name and surname of the worker
date of the month
Start of operations
End of work
the time and hours of suspension, interruption of work, etc., caused by the fault of the employer or by other circumstances for which the worker is not responsible;
total daily work period
hours of fieldwork
hours of standby duty
the absence time at work:

— hours of rest (daily, weekly and annual)
— non-working days and public holidays laid down by law
— hours of impediment to work due to temporary incapacity to work
— hours of paid leave and absence from work
— hours of paternity leave and second adoptive leave
— hours of unpaid leave for personal care
— hours of unpaid leave of candidates for the President of the Republic of Croatia, members of the Croatian Parliament, members of county assemblies, city or municipal councils, counties, mayors or mayors of municipalities and their deputies
— hours of non-appearance in the course of the daily working pattern per worker’s request
— hours of non-appearance during the daily working pattern during which the worker is not at fault in the performance of the contract;
— hours of non-appearance due to military service or service in a contractual reserve
— hours spent on strike
— hours of lockout.
In addition to the data provided, the employer is also required to keep specific data on the working time which determines the exercise of certain rights in the employment relationship or in relation to the employment relationship (night hours, overtime, shift work, two-time work, working on public holidays or non-working days laid down by law, etc.).
The worker’s working time records must be kept accurately and promptly and the employer must enter the data in the records no later than on the seventh day following that on which the data are to be completed.
The worker shall have the right to consult the records.

2. Employment relationship
In an employment relationship, the employer is obliged to provide the worker with work and pay the worker a salary for the work carried out, and the worker is obliged to carry out the work personally in accordance with the instructions given by the employer.
Before the worker commences work, the employer shall enable the worker to become acquainted with the regulations on working relationships and inform the worker about the organisation of work and health and safety at work.
If a right arising from an employment relationship is regulated differently by an employment contract, an employment regulation, an agreement concluded between the works council and the employer, a collective agreement or a law, the most favourable law for the worker shall apply, unless otherwise provided for in the Labour Code or other law.
The employment relationship is based on an employment contract.
The employment contract is concluded for an indefinite period.
By way of exception, an employment contract may be concluded for a fixed term. An employer may conclude a successive fixed-term employment contract with the same worker only if there is an objective reason to do so which must be stated. An employer may conclude a maximum of three successive fixed-term employment contracts with the same worker, the total duration of which, including the first contract, shall not exceed three years.
The employment contract shall be concluded in writing and shall contain information on:

The parties and their personal identification number and place of residence or registered office;
The place of work, and if, due to the nature of the work, there is no fixed or main place of work or it is variable, an indication of the different places where the work is or could be carried out;
the job title, i.e. the nature or type of work for which the worker is being recruited, or a brief list or description of the duties;
The date of conclusion of the employment contract and the date of commencement of work;
whether the contract is of indefinite duration or fixed-term and the date of termination or the expected duration of the contract in the case of fixed-term contracts;
The duration of the paid annual leave to which the worker is entitled and, where that information cannot be provided at the time of the conclusion of the contract or of the issue of the certificate, the method for determining the duration of that leave;
The procedure in the event of termination of the contract of employment and the notice periods to be observed by the worker or the employer, or, where such information cannot be provided at the time of conclusion of the contract or when the certificate is issued, the method for determining the notice periods;
The gross remuneration, including the gross amount of basic or agreed remuneration, allowances and other remuneration for work performed and the periods of payment of those and other remuneration due under the employment relationship to which the worker is entitled;
9th working day or week in hours
whether full-time or part-time contracts are concluded;
The right to education, training and training referred to in Article 54. Of the Labour Code, if any;
The length and conditions of the probationary period, if any.

If the employment contract is not concluded in writing, the employer shall, before commencement of employment, issue the worker with written confirmation of the employment contract concluded.
The employer shall provide the worker with a copy of the registration for statutory pension and health insurance within eight days of the expiry of the deadline for registration for compulsory insurance.
Specific types of employment contracts:

employment contract for permanent seasonal work;
employment contract at a separate place of work and telework contract
employment contract in case of posting of workers abroad.
additional employment contract

3. Work by minors
An employer may not employ a person who:

is under the age of 15, and
she did not finish primary school.

The conclusion and termination of the employment contract of a minor shall require the written authorisation of the legal representative.
A minor shall not be employed in jobs which may jeopardise his or her:

security;
health;
pyglomerates, or
development

A minor may work in certain jobs only after having first established his or her medical fitness to perform those jobs. On completion of the medical examination, a certificate of medical fitness shall be issued for minors to perform certain tasks.
The minor shall not work for more than eight hours during a 24-hour period.

4. Labour regulations
An employer employing at least 20 workers shall adopt and publish rules of employment governing pay, the organisation of work, the procedure and measures for protecting the dignity of workers and measures for protection against discrimination and other matters relevant to workers employed by that employer, where those matters are not regulated by a collective agreement.
The employer must consult the works council on the adoption of the operating rules.

5. Protection of life, health and privacy
The employer shall inform the worker of the dangers of the work carried out by the worker.
Workers’ personal data may only be collected, processed, used and communicated to third parties if this is required by law or necessary for the exercise of the rights and obligations arising from the employment relationship.
An employer employing at least 20 workers is required to appoint a person who must enjoy the confidence of the worker and who, in addition, is authorised to monitor that personal data are collected, processed, used and communicated to third parties in accordance with the law.

6. Protection of pregnant women, parents and adoptive parents
The employer shall not:

refuse to employ a woman because she is pregnant,
offer a woman on the grounds of pregnancy, the birth or breastfeeding of a child a modified employment contract under less favourable conditions,
request any information on pregnancy; and
terminate a pregnant woman’s employment contract.

After the expiry of maternity, parental, adoption and paternity leave or leave equivalent in terms of content and manner of use to the right to paternity leave, leave of a pregnant worker, leave of a worker who has given birth or who is breastfeeding a child, leave for the care and care of a child with serious disabilities, and a career break of up to the third year of the child’s life in accordance with the legislation on maternity and parental support, a worker who has exercised one of those rights shall have the right to return to the jobs which she worked before exercising that right.

7. Protection of workers who are temporarily or permanently incapacitated for work
The worker shall be required, in respect of temporary incapacity for work:

inform the employer as soon as possible;
provide the employer, within three days at the latest, with a medical certificate confirming the temporary incapacity for work and its expected duration.

A worker who has sustained an accident at work or has contracted an occupational disease during treatment or recovery from an accident at work or an occupational disease may not be dismissed by the employer.
After treatment or recovery, the worker has the right to return to the jobs he previously worked on.
If there is a worker:

reduction of work ability with residual work capacity;
reduction of work ability with partial loss of work ability; or
imminent risk of impairment of work ability

determined by the determining authority, the employer shall, taking into account the findings and opinion of that authority, offer the worker an employment contract for the performance of the tasks for which he is fit for work, which shall correspond as closely as possible to the tasks previously performed by the worker.
If the employer is unable to provide the worker with adequate work, he or she may terminate his or her employment contract with the consent of the works council.

8. Temporary employment
A temporary employment agency is an employer which, on the basis of a contract for the hiring-out of workers, assigns workers to another employer (user) to carry out temporary work.
A temporary agency worker is a worker employed by an agency to assign to a user.
A temporary employment agency may assign workers to user undertakings provided that:

registered,
entered in the ministry’s records.

The temporary employment agency may only perform temporary agency work and recruitment-related activities (if it is authorised to do so).
In the performance of his duties, the temporary employment agency may not charge the worker a fee for assigning him to a user, nor a fee in the event of the conclusion of an employment contract between the temporary agency worker and the user.
A contract for the hiring-out of workers between the agency and the beneficiary must be in writing. The contract shall contain information on:
1) the number of agency workers needed by the beneficiary;
2) the period for which the workers are hired out;
3) place of work
4) the tasks to be performed by the temporary agency workers;
5) the manner and period in which the beneficiary must submit to the Agency a payroll statement and the rules applicable to the beneficiary’s payroll; and
6) a person authorised to represent the user vis-à-vis temporary agency workers.
A contract for the hiring-out of workers may not be concluded for:
1) replacement of a worker by a user on strike
2) work carried out by workers for whom the beneficiary has carried out a collective redundancy procedure in the previous six-month period;
3) work carried out by workers whose employment contracts were terminated by the beneficiary within the previous six-month period by means of employment-related dismissal;
4) performance of tasks which, under occupational health and safety regulations, constitute work with special working conditions and the assigned worker does not meet those special conditions;
5) the hiring-out of workers to another agency.
An agency may conclude a temporary employment contract with a worker for a fixed term or for an indefinite period.
The agreed remuneration and other working conditions of the temporary agency worker shall not be less favourable than the remuneration or other working conditions of the worker employed by the user in the same work, which the temporary agency worker would have earned if he had concluded an employment contract with the user.
The user may not use the work of the same temporary agency worker to perform the same tasks for a continuous period of more than three years without limiting the number of successive fixed-term contracts.
Before assigning a temporary agency worker to a user, the agency must issue him with a prescription.

9. Probationary period, education and work training
A probationary period may be agreed upon when the employment contract is concluded.
The probationary period shall not exceed six months.
The dissatisfaction of the probationer constitutes a particularly justified ground for the termination of the employment contract.
The notice period for the agreed probationary period shall be at least 1 week.
A person who is employed for the first time in the profession for which he or she was trained may be recruited as a trainee by the employer. Trainee employment contracts may be concluded for a fixed period. The trainee may be temporarily assigned to work with another employer. The maximum duration of a traineeship is one year.
Where a professional examination or professional experience is laid down by law or regulation as a condition for the performance of the duties pertaining to a particular occupation, an employer may admit a person who has completed education for such an occupation to vocational training for work without taking up an employment relationship (professional training for work).

10. Working hours
The opening hours are:

the time during which the worker is required to perform his or her duties;
time at which he/she is ready to perform his/her duties as instructed by his/her employer (on-call)

A worker’s period of stand-by duty shall not be considered to be working time if it proves to be necessary (stand-by duty), and the worker is not present at the place where his or her work is carried out or at any other place designated by the employer.
The periods of stand-by duty and the level of remuneration shall be governed by the employment contract or collective agreement.
Time spent working at the request of the employer shall be regarded as working time, whether at a place determined by the employer or at a place chosen by the worker.
Working time arrangements are arrangements for the duration of a worker’s work, which determine the days and hours when work begins and ends on those days.
Working time arrangements may be equal or unequal, depending on whether the duration of work is equally or unequally distributed across days, weeks or months.
During the exercise of the right to rest and leave laid down in the provisions of the Workers’ Statute, the worker and the employer must take into account work-life balance and the principle of non-availability in professional communications, unless there is an overriding need, that is to say, where, due to the nature of the work, communication with the worker cannot be excluded or where a collective agreement or employment contract provides otherwise.
The opening hours may be:

full-time - forty hours a week
part-time - any time less than a full-time equivalent, and
reduced working hours - working hours are reduced in proportion to the detrimental impact of working conditions on workers’ health and working capacity

The pay and other material rights of workers (jubilee, bonus, bonus for Christmas holidays and the like) shall be determined and paid in proportion to the agreed working time, unless otherwise provided for in a collective agreement, an employment regulation or an employment contract.
Overtime is work in excess of a full-time or part-time working period which may be used in the case of:

force majeure,
an extraordinary increase in the volume of work; and
in other similar cases of overriding need.

The employer shall provide the worker with a written request for overtime.
The total duration of overtime work shall not exceed fifty hours per week.
Overtime worked by a worker may not exceed one hundred and eighty hours per year, unless agreed by collective agreement, in which case it may not exceed two hundred and fifty hours per year.
Overtime worked by minors shall be prohibited.
Certain categories of workers may work overtime only if they provide the employer with a written declaration of consent to such work (except in the case of force majeure):

pregnant women;
parent with a child up to 8 years of age
multi-employer part-time worker

The home employer may order a worker working in additional work to work overtime only if the worker provides the employer with a written declaration of voluntary consent to such work, except in the case of force majeure, until the employer with which the worker carries out additional work is allowed to order overtime, except in the case of force majeure.

The working time of a worker may be spread over equal or unequal periods of time, by days, weeks or months.
The working time schedule shall be established:

by regulation
by collective agreement,
by an agreement concluded between the works council and the employer,
the Rules of Procedure;
an employment contract, or
by written decision of the employer.

The employer must inform the worker at least one week in advance of his or her work schedule or of changes to his or her work schedule, except where there is an overriding need for the worker to work.
Redistribution of working time: the period of work shall be longer for one period and less than full-time or part-time for another, in such a way that the average working time during the period of redeployment shall not exceed full-time or part-time.
Redeployment may be agreed through:

a collective agreement, or
an agreement concluded between the works council and the employer.

If the redeployment is not agreed, the employer shall establish a plan for the redeployment of working time with an indication of the tasks and the number of workers involved in the redeployment of working time and shall submit such a plan to the labour inspector in advance.
Redistributive working time shall not be considered as overtime.
Night work is work carried out between twenty-two hours in the evening and six hours in the morning of the following day, and in agriculture between twenty-two hours in the evening and five hours in the morning of the following day.
Night work for minors:

between nineteen hours in the evening and seven hours in the morning of the following day (industry),
between 20:00 in the evening and 6:00 in the morning of the following day (outside industry).

Night work by minors shall be prohibited, unless such work is temporarily indispensable in activities regulated by special regulations.
A night worker is a worker who, according to his or her daily working schedule, regularly works:

at least three hours during night work, or
at least one third of its working time during a consecutive 12-month period during night work.

Shift work is the organisation of work involving the alteration of workers in the same jobs and the same place of work in accordance with a working pattern, which may be interrupted or continuous.
The employer shall ensure that shifts are changed in such a way that the night shift worker works consecutively for no longer than one week.
The employer shall provide the night worker with medical examinations before the start of that work and regularly during the night work. The cost of the medical examination shall be borne by the employer.

11. Rest and Leave
Pause
A worker who works at least six hours a day has the right to a rest period (a break) of at least thirty minutes.
A minor who works at least four and a half hours a day shall have the right to a rest period (a break) of at least 30 continuous minutes.
Rest periods (breaks) are counted as working time.

Daily rest
During any period of 24 hours, the worker shall be entitled to a daily rest period of at least 12 consecutive hours.
Weekly rest
The worker shall be entitled to a weekly rest period of at least 24 consecutive hours, to which a daily rest period shall be added.
The minor shall be entitled to a weekly rest period of at least forty-eight consecutive hours.
The weekly rest period shall normally be taken by the worker on the Sunday, that is to say the day before or after the Sunday. If the rest cannot be taken on those days, the weekly rest must be provided at the end of the working period.
Annual leave
The worker shall be entitled to at least four weeks’ annual leave for each calendar year.
A minor and a worker who works in jobs where, subject to health and safety at work measures, it is not possible to protect the worker from adverse effects shall be entitled to annual leave of at least five weeks.
A worker who is employed for the first time or who has an interruption of more than eight days between two employment relationships shall acquire the right to annual leave after six months of continuous employment with that employer.
A worker who has not fulfilled the condition for entitlement to full annual leave shall be entitled to a pro rata share of the annual leave, which shall be fixed at one twelfth of the full annual leave for each month of the employment relationship.
Annual leave is determined for the worker by the number of working days depending on the worker’s weekly working pattern.
An agreement waiving the right to annual leave, namely the payment of an allowance instead of taking annual leave, shall be null and void.
During the period of taking annual leave, the worker shall be entitled to remuneration at least equal to his average monthly salary in the previous three months.
Part of the annual leave may be carried over to the following calendar year and taken no later than 30 June of the following calendar year.
The timetable for taking annual leave shall be set by the employer, in accordance with the collective agreement, the employment regulations, the employment contract and the Labour Act, by 30 June of the current year at the latest. The timetable for taking annual leave must take account of the needs of work organisation and of the opportunities for workers to take leave.
One day’s annual leave shall entitle the worker, subject to the obligation to inform the employer at least three days before the leave is taken, to take it when he so wishes.
Paid leave
During a calendar year, a worker shall be entitled to exemption from the obligation to work in return for remuneration (paid leave) for important personal needs, in particular in relation to:

by marriage,
the birth of a child,
serious illness or
the death of a close family member, etc.

The worker shall be entitled to paid leave of a total of seven working days per year.
A worker is entitled to one paid free day on the basis of a blood donation.
Unpaid leave
The employer may, at the worker’s request, grant the worker unpaid leave.
During unpaid leave, the rights and obligations arising from or in connection with the employment relationship shall be suspended, unless otherwise provided for by law.
The worker shall be entitled to unpaid leave of a total of five working days per year for the provision of personal care.
A worker shall be entitled to one day’s absence from work in a calendar year where, for a particularly important and urgent family reason due to illness or accident, his immediate presence is absolutely necessary.

12. Possibility to regulate working time differently
The employer and the worker may agree autonomy in determining working time:

where, due to the specific nature of the tasks, working time cannot be measured or fixed in advance,
if the worker has the status of manager,
where the worker is a member of the family of an employer of a natural person who lives in a joint household with the employer and who, in an employment relationship, performs certain tasks for the employer.

13. Salary and Remuneration
Pay is the remuneration of the worker paid by the employer to the worker for the work carried out in a given month.
The employer is required to calculate and pay to the worker the remuneration earned by the worker according to the statutory, established or agreed bases or criteria set out in a special regulation, collective agreement, work regulations or employment contract.
The employer shall pay the worker equal pay for the same work or work of equal value.
Unless otherwise provided for in a collective agreement or employment contract, the salary and remuneration for the previous month shall be paid no later than the fifteenth day of the following month.
The employer shall provide the worker, no later than 15 days from the date of payment of the salary, remuneration, severance pay or compensation for annual leave not taken, with a statement showing how those amounts have been determined.
The payslip shall include:
1. Employer’s details:
a) for a legal person: company name, registered office, personal identification number (hereinafter: OIB) and IBAN account number
b) for a natural person: name, address, PIN and IBAN account number
2. Information on the worker: name, address, PIN, IBAN number(s) of account and name of bank
3. period, i.e. the month for which the salary or allowance is payable
4. Data relating to hours worked and other data from which the amount of pay depends, and the amount of pay on those grounds, that is to say, data relating to the hours for which the worker is entitled to remuneration and the amount of that remuneration;
5. Information on the types, amounts and date laid down for the payment of other remuneration treated as remuneration within the meaning of the Labour Act and paid in cash or in kind by the employer to the worker pursuant to a collective agreement, an employment regulation, an act of the employer or an employment contract.
An employer who, on the due date, does not pay the salary, remuneration, severance grant or allowance in lieu of annual leave not taken, or does not pay it in full, shall provide the worker, by the end of the month in which the payment is due, with:

A statement showing the total amount of the salary, remuneration, severance payment or payment for annual leave not taken in the prescribed content;
The calculation of the amount of the salary, salary compensation, severance payment or salary compensation for the unused annual payment which he was required to pay in the prescribed content.

Such statement shall bear the signature of the authorised person and the stamp of the employer, but shall contain an indication of the due date instead of the date fixed for payment. The calculation of the unpaid salary is an enforceable title.
The employer is required to use form NP1 to calculate the unpaid or partially unpaid salary or salary compensation.
The employer shall keep the payslips for at least six years.
The worker shall be entitled to an increased salary for:

degraded working conditions,
overtime;
night work,
working on Sundays;
a public holiday, or
work on another day that the law prescribes not to be worked.

The employer may not, without the worker’s consent, pursue his or her claim against the worker by withholding payment of all or part of his or her salary.
For periods during which he is not working for duly justified reasons laid down by law, regulation, collective agreement, rules of employment or employment contract, the worker is entitled to remuneration.
The level of remuneration shall be determined by this or another law, another regulation, a collective agreement, an employment regulation or an employment contract, and if not so determined, the worker shall be entitled to remuneration equal to the average salary earned in the previous three months.

14. Inventions and technical improvements of workers
The worker shall inform the employer of his or her invention at work. Information about the invention shall be kept by the worker as a trade secret. The invention belongs to the employer and the worker is entitled to a prize.
If the employer accepts to apply the technical upgrade proposed by the worker, he or she is required to pay him or her a fee.

15. Prohibition of workers from competing with their employer
An employee may not, without the employer’s authorisation, for his or her own account or for that of others, enter into work in the employer’s activity (legal ban on competitions). If the worker acts contrary to the employer, he or she may claim compensation for the damage suffered.
The employer and the worker may agree that, for a certain period of time after the termination of the employment contract, the worker may not be employed by another person who is in competition with the employer and may not conclude, on his own account or on behalf of a third party, transactions which compete with the employer (contractual prohibition of competition).
Contractual prohibition of competition:

may not be concluded for a period exceeding two years from the date of termination of service,
it may form an integral part of the employment contract;
it must be concluded in writing;
it shall be null and void if the contract is a minor or a worker who, at the time the contract is concluded, receives a salary lower than the average salary in the Republic of Croatia.

A contractual prohibition of competition shall bind the worker only if the employer has contractually undertaken to pay the worker, during the period of the prohibition, compensation at least equal to half of the average wage paid to the worker in the three months prior to the termination of the contract of employment.
The employer may waive the contractual prohibition of competition provided that it informs the worker in writing.
A contractual penalty may be imposed in the event of non-compliance with a contractual prohibition of competition.

16. Compensation for damages
A worker who, at work or in connection with work, intentionally or through gross negligence causes damage to the employer shall be liable to pay compensation.
A worker who, at work or in connection with work, intentionally or through gross negligence causes damage to a third party, and who has been compensated by the employer, shall be obliged to compensate the employer for the amount of compensation paid to the third party.
If a worker suffers damage at work or in connection with work, the employer is obliged to compensate the worker under the general rules of mandatory law.

17. Termination of the employment contract
The employment contract shall be terminated:
1. upon the death of the worker
2. upon the death of the employer who is a natural person
3. upon the death of the employer who is a sole proprietor, if there has been no transfer of sole proprietorship in accordance with a special regulation
4. upon the cessation of sole proprietorship by force of law in accordance with a special regulation
5. upon the expiry of the time for which the fixed-term employment contract has been concluded
6. when the worker reaches 65 years of age and 15 years of pensionable service, unless otherwise agreed between the employer and the worker
7. by agreement of the worker and the employer
8. on the day of notification to the employer of the finality of the decision on the recognition of the right to disability pension due to complete loss of working capacity
9. by means of notice
10. by a decision of the competent court. If the employment contract is not terminated by the winding-up or winding-up of the company following a summary procedure without liquidation in accordance with company law, the employment contract shall terminate at the latest by removing the company from the commercial register.
An agreement on the termination of the employment contract must be concluded in writing.
The employer may terminate the employment contract with a prescribed or agreed notice period (regular termination), if it has good reason to do so, in the case of:
1) when the need to perform a particular job ceases for economic, technological or organisational reasons (business-related dismissal),
2) if the worker is unable to perform his or her obligations under the employment relationship properly by reason of certain enduring characteristics or capabilities (personally conditional dismissal),
3) if the worker is in breach of the obligations arising from the employment relationship (dismissal due to fault on the part of the worker) or
4) if the worker has not passed the probationary period (dismissal for failure to pass the probationary period).
When deciding on business-related dismissal, the employer must take into account the duration of the employment relationship, the age and the maintenance obligations imposed on the worker. This obligation does not apply to an employer employing fewer than twenty workers.
An employer who terminates a worker’s employment relationship on grounds of dismissal shall not, for a period of six months from the date of notification of the decision terminating the contract of employment of the worker, employ another worker in the same employment relationship.
The employer and the worker have justifiable grounds for extraordinary dismissal:

if, owing to a particularly serious breach of an obligation arising from the employment relationship, or
some other particularly important facts,

having regard to all the circumstances and the interests of both contracting parties, the continuation of the employment relationship is not possible.
The employment contract may be terminated only within 15 days of becoming aware of the fact on which the extraordinary dismissal is based.
Prior to regular dismissals determined by the worker’s conduct, the employer shall inform the worker in writing of the obligation arising from the employment relationship and shall inform him or her of the possibility of dismissal in the event of a continuation of the breach of that obligation, unless there are circumstances which make it unreasonable to expect the employer to do so.
Before the worker’s regular or extraordinary dismissal is triggered by his or her conduct, the employer shall give the worker the opportunity to present his or her defence, unless there are circumstances which make it unreasonable to expect the employer to do so.
The termination must be:

in writing,
reasoned and
served on the person to be cancelled.

The period of notice shall begin to run from the date of notification of the termination of the employment contract.
The notice period does not run during:
1. pregnancy
2. the use of maternal, parental, adoptive and paternity leave or leave which, in terms of content and manner of use, is equivalent to the right to paternity leave, part-time work, part-time work for the purpose of increased child care, leave of a pregnant worker, leave of a worker who has given birth or a worker who is breastfeeding a child and leave or part-time work for the purpose of nursing care and care of a child with severe developmental disabilities in accordance with the regulation on maternal and parental benefits
3. temporary incapacity for work during treatment or recovery from an injury at work or an occupational disease
4. performing the duties and rights of citizens serving in national defence forces.

In the case of regular termination, the notice period shall be at least:
1) two weeks, if the worker has been in an employment relationship with the same employer continuously for less than one year,
2) one month, if the worker has been in an employment relationship with the same employer for a continuous period of one year,
3) one month and two weeks, if the worker has been in an employment relationship with the same employer for a continuous period of two years,
4) two months, if the worker has been in an employment relationship with the same employer for a continuous period of five years,
5) two months and two weeks, if the worker has been in an employment relationship with the same employer for a continuous period of ten years,
6) three months, if the worker has been in an employment relationship with the same employer for a continuous period of 20 years.
The period of notice shall be increased by two weeks if the worker has reached the age of fifty years and by one month if the worker has reached the age of fifty-five years.
A worker who, at the time of termination of his employment contract, is 65 years of age and 15 years of pensionable service shall not be entitled to a period of notice.
A worker whose employment contract is terminated for breach of an obligation arising from the employment relationship (dismissal based on fault on the part of the worker) shall be given a period of notice equal to half of the periods of notice specified in the event of regular dismissal.
If the court finds that the dismissal of the employer is inadmissible and that the employment relationship has not ended, it will order the reinstatement of the worker.
If the court finds that the dismissal of the employer is not permitted and it is not acceptable for the worker to continue the employment relationship, the court shall, at the worker’s request, fix the date of termination of the employment relationship and award him or her compensation in the amount of at least three and a maximum of eight of that worker’s statutory or agreed monthly wages, depending on the duration of the employment relationship, the age and the maintenance obligations imposed on the worker.
Severance pay is a sum of money paid by an employer to a worker whose employment contract is terminated after two years of continuous work, as a means of securing income and mitigating the adverse consequences of the termination of the employment contract.
Compensation shall not be paid to a worker whose employment contract is terminated for behavioural reasons and to a worker who, at the time of termination of the employment contract, is at least 65 years of age and 15 years of pensionable service.
The severance grant may not be set at less than one third of the average monthly salary earned by the worker in the three months preceding the end of the employment contract, for each year of service with that employer.
An employer who, within a period of ninety days, is likely to have at least twenty workers left for work, of whom at least five would have their employment contracts terminated on grounds of dismissal, shall consult the works council with a view to reaching an agreement to eliminate the need for the workers to stop working.
At the request of the worker, the employer shall, within eight days, issue a certificate stating the nature of the work carried out and the duration of the employment relationship.
The employer shall, within 15 days of the date of termination of the employment relationship, return to the worker all his or her documents and a copy of the deregistration from the statutory pension and health insurance and issue him or her with a certificate stating the nature of the work performed and the duration of the employment relationship.
18. Exercise of rights and obligations arising from the employment relationship
An employer who is a natural person may, by written mandate, authorise another person of legal age to represent him or her in the exercise of the rights and obligations arising from, or in relation to, the employment relationship.
Where the employer is a legal person, the authorisation shall be held by a person or body empowered to do so by the statutes, articles of association, memorandum of association or other rules of the legal person.
A worker who considers that his employer has infringed an employment right may, within 15 days of notification or becoming aware of the infringement, request the employer to exercise that right. If the employer does not comply with that request within 15 days of service of the worker’s request, the worker may, within a further period of 15 days, seek judicial protection for the right that has been infringed.
An employer employing at least 20 workers shall appoint a person who, in addition to the employer, is authorised to receive and deal with complaints relating to the protection of the dignity of workers. The employer shall, at the latest within eight days, examine the complaint and take all the necessary measures appropriate to the individual case to prevent further harassment or sexual harassment, if any.
Where a contract is transferred to a new employer, the worker whose employment contract has been transferred shall retain all the rights arising from the employment relationship acquired up to the date of the transfer of the employment contract.
The employer shall, in good time before the date of the transfer, notify the works council and all the employees involved in the transfer that the enterprise, part of the enterprise, economic activity or part of an economic activity is to be transferred. The notification referred to in this paragraph shall include information on:
1) the date of transposition of the employment contract,
2) the reasons for the transfer of the employment contract;
3) the impact of the transfer of the employment contract on the legal, economic or social situation of the worker; and
4) the measures provided for in respect of the workers whose contracts are being transferred.

II EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING

Works council

Workers employed by an employer employing at least twenty workers shall have the right to participate in decision-making on issues related to their economic and social rights and interests.
Workers shall have the right to elect, by secret ballot, one or more of their representatives to a works council to represent them with the employer in the protection and promotion of their rights and interests. The procedure for establishing a works council shall be launched on a proposal from the trade union or at least 20 % of the employees employed by the employer.
The number of members of the works council shall be set in accordance with the number of employees employed by the employer, as follows:
1) up to seventy-five workers, one representative,
2) between seventy-six and two hundred and fifty workers, three representatives,
3) from two hundred and fifty-one to five hundred workers, five representatives,
4) from five hundred to seven hundred and fifty workers, seven representatives,
5) from seven hundred and fifty-one to a thousand workers, nine representatives.
The works council shall have an additional two members for each additional thousand employees or part thereof.
A works council shall be elected for an electoral term of four years running from the date on which the final results of the election are announced.
All workers employed by a particular employer shall have the right to choose and be elected, except:

members of the employer’s administrative and supervisory bodies and members of their families, and
workers who are authorised to represent the employer.

Notification
The employer shall notify the works council at least every three months of:
1) the status, performance and organisation of the work;
2) the expected development of business activities and their impact on the economic and social situation of workers;
3) developments and changes in wages;
4) the extent of and reasons for the introduction of overtime;
5) the number and type of workers employed by it, the structure of employment (number of fixed-term workers, at the segregated place of work, at a distance, through a temporary-work agency, who are temporarily assigned to or from an affiliated undertaking, the number of night workers), the structure of employment by gender, and the development and policy of employment,
6) the number and type of workers who, before taking up employment with another employer, have informed the parent employer that an additional employment contract has been concluded with the other employer,
7) health and safety at work and measures to improve working conditions;
8) the results of the inspections carried out in the field of labour and safety at work,
9) other issues of particular relevance to the economic and social situation of workers.
Counselling
Before taking a decision that is relevant to the situation of the employees, the employer shall consult the works council on the intended decision and supply the works council with the relevant information for taking the decision and considering its impact on the situation of the employees. In particular, decisions on:
1) the adoption of the operating rules;
2) the plan and development and recruitment and dismissal policy;
3) the transfer of an undertaking, part of an undertaking, economic activity or part of an economic activity, as well as of a worker’s contract of employment to a new employer, and the impact of such a transfer on the workers affected by the transfer;
4) measures relating to the protection of health and safety at work;
5) the introduction of new technology and changes in the organisation and functioning;
6) the holiday plan;
7) working time schedules,
8) night work,
9) fees for inventions and technical upgrading;
10) collective redundancies and all other decisions for which the law or collective agreement provides for the involvement of the works council in their adoption;
11) Appointment of a person empowered to receive and deal with complaints relating to the protection of the dignity of workers.
Codecision
Decisions on the following may be taken by the employer only after obtaining the consent of the works council:
(1) the dismissal of a member of a works council;
2) to dismiss a candidate for membership of a works council who has not been elected, for a period of three months after the final results of the election have been determined,
3) the dismissal of a worker who has suffered a reduction in earning capacity as a result of an accident at work or an occupational disease or a reduction in earning capacity with partial loss of earning capacity, or of a disabled worker,
4) the dismissal of a worker at the age of 60, except for the dismissal of a worker at the age of 65 and 15 years of pensionable service,
5) dismissal of a worker’s representative in the employer’s organisation;
6) the inclusion of persons protected against dismissal in the collective redundancy, except where the employer has opened or is conducting winding-up proceedings in accordance with special legislation,
7) the collection, processing, use and provision to third parties of information relating to the worker,
8) appointing a person with the power to monitor that workers’ personal data are collected, processed, used and communicated to third parties in accordance with the provisions of the law.
A member of a works council shall be bound by the obligation of professional secrecy which has come to his knowledge in the exercise of his authority.
The works council may enter into a written agreement with the employer containing legal rules governing employment relationships. The agreement may not regulate pay, working time and other matters regularly regulated by a collective agreement, unless the parties to the collective agreement authorise it.
2. Employee meetings
Sets of workers employed by an employer must be held twice a year, at similar intervals.
If no works council is established with the employer, the group of workers shall be convened by the employer.

3. Workers’ representative on the employer’s organisation
In a company, one member of the board of directors who supervises the management of the business (supervisory board, board of directors) must be an employee’s representative.
The workers’ representative shall be appointed and removed by the works council.
Where no works council is established with the employer, the workers’ representative shall be elected and dismissed by free and direct elections.

III COLLECTIVE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIPS
Workers shall have the right, of their own free choice, to form and join a trade union, under conditions which may only be laid down in the statutes or rules of that trade union.
Employers shall have the right, of their own free choice, to form and join an employer’s association, under conditions which may be laid down only in the statutes or rules of that association.
Employers and their associations must not monitor the establishment and operation of trade unions.
The worker shall not be placed in a less favourable position than other workers as a result of being a member of a trade union, and in particular shall not be permitted:
1) conclude an employment contract with a particular worker, provided that the worker does not enter or leave the trade union;
2) to terminate the employment contract or otherwise place the worker in a less favourable position than other workers on account of his or her union membership or participation in trade union activities outside working hours, with the agreement of the employer and during working hours.
Trade unions are free to decide how to represent them with their employer. If they have at least five members employed by an employer, they may appoint or elect one or more trade union commissioners.
It shall not be possible for a trade union commissioner, during his or her term of office and for six months after his or her termination of office, without the consent of the trade union, to:
1) to terminate the employment contract, or
2) would otherwise place him at a disadvantage in relation to his previous working conditions and in relation to other workers.
A collective agreement shall govern the rights and obligations of the parties to the agreement and may contain legal rules governing the conclusion, content and termination of employment relationships, social security matters and other matters relating to or arising from the employment relationship.
A collective agreement is binding on all persons who have concluded it and on all persons who, at the time of the conclusion of the collective agreement, were or have subsequently become members of the association which has concluded the collective agreement. The collective agreement must indicate the level of its application.
A collective agreement may be concluded for a fixed term (maximum five years) or for an indefinite period.
The Minister may, at the request of all the parties to a collective agreement, extend the application of a collective agreement concluded with a higher-level employers’ association or association to an employer who is not a member of the higher-level employer association or association that is a party to that collective agreement.
A worker shall not be placed in a less favourable position than other workers by reason of the organisation or participation in a strike organised in accordance with the provisions of the law, the collective agreement and the rules of trade unions.

Competent authority and regulations
Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy
Ulica grada Vukovara 78, 10000 Zagreb;
kabinet@mrosp.hr; pisarnica@mrosp.hr
+ 385 1 610 6641

Labour Act (OG 93/14, 127/17, 98/19, 151/22 and 64/23 - Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia)

Rules on the content and method of keeping records of workers employed by employers (OG 55/24)
Rules on the content of the calculation of remuneration, remuneration, severance pay and compensation for untaken annual leave (OG 68/23)

Complaints about the employer’s conduct
Complaints may be submitted to the State Inspectorate of the Republic of Croatia (Labour Inspection Sector) at inspekcija.rada@dirh.hr or by means of a form.